Not Of This World

I just got back from a trip overseas to present at a conference. I missed the beginning of the new term, so I feel kind of ill-prepared for all my schoolyear-based responsibilities, and I'm a month behind on my dissertation writing goals, because I've been applying to jobs for next year. Plus I'm jetlagged. So on Saturday afternoon, the world was overwhelming, spinning out of control, and it was all I could do to just hold on. I needed to get groceries, but my phone was nearly dead, so I decided to plug it in and tackle one of the other pressing things on my to do list: preparing the Bible study for Bible quizzing practice the next morning. So I looked up the schedule, saw what material we would be covering ( 1 Corinthians 2 & 3 ), and started reading. ( Read what I was thinking about when I was reading it here .) And the world stilled. Psalm 1 says that the one who meditates on the Word of the Lord is like a tree planted by streams of water, and I think that is ...

The statement all truth is relative is one that Christian apologists love to attack. The way that some people talk about it, it seems like they think that all intellectuals believe that truth is relative and that that is one reason people don't believe in God. There are so many apologist seminars out there about truth . I think that this is what we call a strawman argument --an argument against something that no one actually believes. I think that, if you really look closely, most people believe that there are both relative and absolute truths. Our differences lay in which   truths  we think are relative or absolute, and perhaps whether it is possible to know the absolute truth. Let me explain. A relative truth is something that is true in one context, but not another. For example, if I say that spaghetti bolognese tastes good , that is generally true for me, because I love spaghetti. But it's not true if the spaghetti got burnt, and it's not true for someone who hates...

I read a science fiction trilogy (The Neanderthal Parallax by Robert J. Sawyer) a while ago, and at one point, the scientists in the series discovered that humans had mystical religious experiences caused by some external event (I forget what it was, though. Something about the magnetic field maybe?). Basically, in the fictional universe of the trilogy, the sum of all human religious and mystical experiences boiled down to a fluke of human biology. Of course, reading such a story makes you wonder if there's a bit of truth to the idea. Heck, even writing this blog has made me question what I believe in. There's something about putting your thoughts down in writing that makes you consider if there's an alternative way of explaining it. And so very often, there is. So why do I stick with it? Before I say more, a disclaimer: the why  for me is not the same as for everyone. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I'm not really very much of a logical thinker....

There have been a lot of memes going around   making fun of the idea of sending " thoughts and prayers " as the result of a tragedy. I can see why people are feeling frustrated when people thoughtlessly say they are sending thoughts and prayers. This is so often an empty response, said by reflex, but you know the person is going to go on with their day like nothing happened. Or, worse, they post it on social media as some form of personal validation . It is especially frustrating when the person sending their "thoughts and prayers" has the power to do more about it, but only offers this empty little platitude. I am guilty of this too. It is in fact such a common problem that I once heard the following advice--if you tell anyone that you're praying for them, pray right away. That way, even if you forget, you know you've prayed for them at least once. But thoughts and prayers are not always empty actions. There are times when I feel lon...